 This started out as my grandparents place they moved here in the 30s and I had that opportunity to purchase this from my folks and family and in the 90s Started on this place running cattle and sheep, which is what was always here at one time they had a dairy as well and Just trying to figure out a way to make it work. I was teaching school here in Newel and and Didn't have the time to make the passes in the fields or to Manage things like they should but as we went along we could see that by putting some management into the grassland and into Looking at how we kept diversity on the landscape. We were able to improve our livestock Health as well as production the options that diversity allows us in being able to withstand the ups and downs of Markets in both livestock and sheep helps level out those peaks and valleys we run into from a financial point of view and it just Makes it work from year to year and not have a boom or bust or run into A shortfall we just kind of level out our Income streams and can have some predictability in our outcomes as far as meeting those financial demands Unfortunately unless you know your payments are very small like if you've if you've been handed down your ranch from the Previous generation. I mean that's not the case for most of us and we have payments to make so Unfortunately a lot of times as one or the other of the partners having a job in town is just necessary and you know for health insurance or things like that also and In our case I stayed home to raise the kids and they've had his job in town and you know a lot of these Practices I wish we had started earlier because it does make it easier To manage things, you know, there's a lot of things that would have been easier for me back then when he was in town, and I was here so a Lot of the practices that we put in place today make it a lot easier to run things on a day-to-day basis a lot of these grasslands that we have tended to be severely overgrazed just because of their proximity to cropland and confined systems so as I move back into this we try to figure out a way to In a brittle environment to try to hold water in in produce more grass and as we went through that we found these Practices to put in that would make that difference And so we're looking at monocultures of heavy and smooth brome encrusted wheat grass trying to figure out Ways to improve the production and increase that diversity both for livestock nutrition and Rangeland health and and the big thing about keeping water we're a 15 inch rainfall environment Half of that comes in April May June and then we've got to make use of what we get the rest of the year So the whole idea is how do we capture water? keep it on the land and create a productive Food source for our livestock and so through that we really found that by taking those Principles of rangeland health we were able to Increase that production, but also increase resilience We really struggle with this time of year in August. It's hot and dry How do we keep those nutrition levels up and diversity makes that difference? So as we went down that path The diversity in livestock has every bit as important as a diversity in the plant community so not only do the sheep and cattle provide different revenue streams and We put an emphasis on wool as a regenerative Agricultural product too because the nice thing about sheep is they make good use out of Undesirable plants many times weeds that cattle won't select for consumption and in this case we can produce both a wool product a textile product and a Leap product with the sheep enterprise Dave and Holly and the boys they've Been talking about things they've been doing here on the ranch Elevating their level of management to achieve their conservation goals and Dave talked about it quite a bit He's looking at these rangeland health indicators and constantly looking to Stay within the confines of the potential of this land But really taking opportunities and optimizing potential here for not only their livestock productivity But for wildlife water quality and all the other resource values that we're always looking at with the principles that dad talked about we like to have the cows run with the sheep so that we're getting two different forms of animal impact and Developing our diversity to make it similar to what it was before European man came I like trying to imitate the cow with the buffalo and the sheep with the antelope and deer and It's just interesting for me to try and mimic how our grazing was back then how God designed it how do we consider bringing the sheep enterprise into an operation and there's a lot of things to Consider when you do that the biggest thing is You just cannot think of it from a profitability point of view Without considering all the other aspects that go with that in both in infrastructure needs But also in in quality of life, and is that something you're going to be okay working with It is a lot easier for people to bring sheep into a cattle operation than for People to bring cattle into a sheep operation from an infrastructure point of view as you consider those things you need to know What your plant diversity is out there the old rule that? Was always out there as you can run one you behind one cow without having a competition for the forage Resource and that's pretty true if your diversity Stays what it should be in these plant communities in Western South Dakota if you get into Situation where your plant composition is primarily Western wheat grass, and there's not a lot of forbs or shrubs Or other short grasses, then you're going to be in competition But knowing that you can still make use of those two enterprises together better than separately Implementing good practices. We're taking better care of the land and In taking better care of the land than the animals that we run on that land are Healthier also which in the end means a healthier product for consumers when they go to their supermarkets And so that is a really feel-good thing that we can produce a really healthy product that will benefit a lot of people